Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Lemon Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine flour, grated bread, sugar, shredded suet, cream, eggs, lemon rind, and lemon juice, and mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Cook and serve
Boil for 1 hour.
Serve with cold sauce.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help give the pudding a set, tender structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
- Grated bread
- Adds body and soaks up liquid, helping the pudding hold a soft, moist crumb.
- Shredded suet
- Adds fat, which gives the pudding richness and a moist, tender texture.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and adds to its tender texture.
The step that matters
Boil for 1 hour. The pudding must cook gently and steadily for the full time so the eggs and flour set through the center. Undercooking leaves it wet and loose, while water that stops boiling lengthens cooking and can make it heavy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, bread, sugar, cream, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, bread, sugar, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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